Hitch Receivers

I'm looking for a hitch receiver to put on the back of my 73 CJ-5. All the ones that I've seen on the jeep sites are for 76+, with the exception of a tubular rear bumper. Are there any other places that I might be able to find one (hidden hitch, reese, draw-tite)?

 

Are you looking for the hitch that attaches to the drawbar? If so, troll Ebay; it may take a while. That's what I had to do on my '73. Then you can just get a trailer ball at your FLAPS. For a receiver, I don't know.

 

Never seen a receiver on one of those unless it was home made

 

If you can use a welder or you can find a professional welder is it not hard to remedy.

I purchased a 2.5" to 2" reciever adaptor and carried it to my local welder. He drilled 4 holes in plate steel, that matched on centers to existing holes in the bumper, and welded the tube to the plate. The trick is to cut part of the heads off of the inboard bolts so they have clearance against the length of the receiver tube.

I'll post some pics tommorow. You can also purchase reciever tubes with the front banding (strength) from Harbour Freight for cheap.

Some people say the banding is absolutely necessary. I did not know this until after the fact, but most welders worth their salt can remedy that as well.
I didn't intend to ever load it, but during deer season I put 327 lbs on a hitch haul that extended over two feet from the end of the hitch.

Cost:
Receiver - $16
Welding - $30 (including plate steel for mounting)
Hardware - $2
Painting - $8
Good luck
Switzer

 

I had actually thought about doing that. So your suggesting instead of welding the tube directly to the factory hitch, weld it to a plate and then bolt the plate to the hitch?

 

my jeep came with a weird, old looking rig.

It's basically a GIANT piece of angle iron, with two arms that go forward and along the frame rails (which are OH so fun with regards to grease able shackle interference, and I had to remove the gas tank to get to the bolts.

The arms go to the sides of this angle iron and bolt to it, which itself has two 'tabs' that bolt to the rear crossmember each side with 2 bolts.

So four bolts through crossmember (I know, weak) and two big arms that go to frame and each bolt in two places, with the third being arms to angle iron.

then there is a series of large holes in the flat level part of the angle iron, and a hitch receiver unit it bolted to that with HUGE bolts. This individual part looks newer.

Alot like this 'step bumper receiver', but not the exact same thing.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_43576_43576

the entire rig is off right now while I make other repairs which it was in the way of, as you can glean from above. IF this is at all useful to you, I could take pics and even tracings of the items as it would be easy to fabricate, if it is felt at all to be useful. IMHO without those SIDE 'arms' to the frame, it would be a VERY weak arrangement with the propensity to utilize it's leverage directly against the rear bumper/crossmember.

 

I tried to put up pics yesterday but the files were too large and I am too dumb to downsize them on my computer. I'm trying to get an old digital camera to take photos.

Yes, the tube is welded to a plate and then the whole she-bang is bolted to the bumper. You could also get them to weld in some ears for towing chains, I just use another set of the bumper holes with small shackles.

 

me too

 

I built mine into the rear cross member



That's one part of the build that I didn't take any pics of, I had to search to find this one.

Jay

 

I had mine built into the stock drawbar.
no loss in ground clearance.
obviously not for Class III usage....

 

Posting pics for switznd:

 

Mine was a factory ad on. It hangs too low. When I get back, I am going to flip it to gain departure angle.